The present invention relates generally to set-top box computer operating systems and more particularly to computer operating system maintenance in a set-top box television environment.
Interactive digital set-top boxes provide an open platform for delivering interactive services and multimedia content to consumers across broadcast and client/server networks. Operating system software is used within the boxes to provide lower-level services to the software applications which operate within the boxes.
New versions of the operating system need to be downloaded into the set-top box so that operating system software bug fixes and greater functionality may be quickly provided to the set-top box. An exemplary non-limiting disadvantage with operating system downloads is the ability to recover from errors or anomalies associated with downloading an operating system.
One such anomaly is a power failure occurring during the download. Upon reboot after the power failure, the set-top box may malfunction due to an incomplete downloaded version of the operating system existing in the set-top box. Without an adequate operating system restoration process in place, the set-top box will continue to malfunction.
The present invention is directed to overcoming these and other disadvantages. In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a novel method and apparatus for restoring operating systems within a set-top box system is provided. The operating system restoration method and apparatus provides for operating a first operating system in a first memory. An application program is operated in a second memory. The first operating system is stored in a second memory so that a second operating system is loaded into the first memory. When a predetermined condition which is associated with the second operating system is detected, the first operating system is loaded into the first memory in response to the detected predetermined condition.